This invention relates to instrumented sporting devices, such as golf clubs, that are designed to provide to a user information such as the spin, direction of travel, curvature of the path travelled, velocity, distance travelled, etc., of a movable object, such as a golf ball, with which the sporting device comes into contact, and relates to devices for transducing forces, for use in conjunction with instrumented sporting devices and other devices.
Known sports practice devices include instrumented targets that indicate the magnitude or location of impacts from a ball or other objects. For example, Kustanovich, U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,090 discloses a target into which a golfer can hit a golf ball, a baseball player can hit a baseball, etc. The instrumented target can be arranged to calculate the speed of the ball at impact, the distance that the ball would have travelled if there were no obstructions in its path, or the direction in which the ball was hit. Other sports practice devices utilize radar, infrared detectors, or optical detectors that analyze the trajectory of a ball or other object as the ball or object travels.
Other practice devices have been designed to be incorporated directly onto sporting devices actually held by the user, such as a golf club, tennis racquet, etc. Such devices indicate to the user the location on the sporting device at which the sporting device has come into contact with a ball or other object. For example, Plutt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,389, discloses a training device that is attached to the head of a golf club and that indicates where on the golf club the club has come into contact with the ball. The practice device assists the user who can see the trajectory of the ball after the ball is hit, but who can not determine where on the face of the club head the head came into contact with the ball, due to the high speed at which the club moves when it comes into contact with the ball.
Shock absorbing devices are known that include a first plate having a plurality of protrusions extending from one side thereof, and a second plate positioned substantially parallel to the first plate and having at least one protrusion extending from one side thereof, the protrusion or protrusions extending from the second plate being interspaced with respect to the protrusions extending from the first plate. The shock absorber also includes a plurality of elastic elements, each of the elastic elements being located between a protrusion extending from the first plate and a protrusion extending from the second plate. Such shock absorbing devices are useful in absorbing normal forces, by transmitting shear forces into the elastic elements.